432 REPORT OF NATIONAL MIKSEUM, 1891. 



placed iu the «liiiues, and where hollows have been worn by the weather 

 in sloping- roeks by the roadside, every little cavity is freqnently occu- 

 l)ied by a stone placed there by suppliants for a fair journey ; grotesquely 

 carved tigures called syou-sal-inaki are erected at the entrance of vil- 

 lages to ward oft" the evil spirits. Taoist priests offer prayers to the 

 mountain sj»irits for travelers. Evidences of some other religion exists 

 in the which are half length human tigures (miriok) carved in stone. The 

 largest are in Uin-jin, near the Kenin Jliver in Cholla-do. 



Lieut. (1. C Foulk, U. S. Navy, photographed the body and head of 

 a tlgure 613 feet high, the cap differing from the Buddhist tigures. The 

 cap is a column 10 feet high supporting a slab of the same height; a 

 ^similar column and slab is placed above the latter: bells hang from the 

 corners of the slabs. There are two mirioks between Ko-yang and 

 Pha-ju 25 feet high. One has a round hat and the other a square one, 

 showing, according to Mr. Aston, that the former is to represent heaven, 

 or the nuile element of Chinese philosophy ; the latter, earth, or the 

 female element.* 



Perhaps the first ethnoh)gical collection ever brought to the West 

 from Korea was a wisely chosen series of art products, to illustrate 

 social and industrial life in Korea, sent to the U. S. National Museum 

 by Ensign J. B. Bernadou, U. S. Navy, in 1884. With this nucleus, 

 and the addition of the fine collection of Dr. H. N. Allen, secretary of 

 the Korean legation at Seoul; a series deposited by Mr. P. L. Jouy, and 

 the gifts of Mr. W. W. Rockhill, Mr. Gustavus Gowardand others, the 

 collection has grown in importance and interest. 



The collection has been explained and studied by Ensign Bernadou, 

 three Korean gentlemen in Washington (Pom K. Soli, Dr. Philip Jai- 

 sohn, and the late Penn Su), Dr. H. N. Allen, Mr. W. W. Kockhill, Mr. 

 P. L. Jouy, Rev. W. E. Grififts, and others, to whom the compiler is 

 grateful for information and suggestions. 



Great interest centers in Korea from the fact that " we have there a 

 a human exemplification of the survival of the whole genera of indus- 

 tries and customs, while in surrounding regions these have been swept 

 away or transformed, "t for the reason that Korea pursued a policy of 

 complete isolation for many centuries and has preserved the customs 

 of the T'ang and Ming dynasties of China over four hundred years 

 ago. 



The peninsula of Korea, '' like Cyi)rus, between Egypt and (heece, 

 forms the link between the Chinese and the Japanese civilization — the 

 old and the new^"| 



The collections to be described are rendered more intelligible by 

 keeping this connection in mind. 



*W. R. Carles: Recent Journeys in Korea. Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc, May, 1886, p. 

 310. 



tProf. O. T. Mason: Science, viir, Aug-. 1886, p. 115. 



tW. E. Grittis: Korea, Without iuul Within. Phihi., p. 23. 



